Hernandez v. Calif. Department of Motor Vehicles et al.
Background: Mr. Hernandez lives with his wife and two children. He has not had a stable job since 2013 when his small business was forced to close its doors. In 2013, …
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Money and Punishment, Circa 2020
In conjunction with the 23rd Annual Liman Colloquium held in the Fall of 2020, the Arthur Liman Center for Public Interest Law at Yale Law School, the Fines and Fees …
Limited Justice: An Assessment of Access to and Quality of Juvenile Defense Counsel in Kansas
Over the course of a year, the National Juvenile Defender Center spent a year assessing Kansas’ juvenile defender system and delinquency courts. Through interviews, court observations and research, the authors …
Flattened: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Knocked Financially Insecure Alabamians on their Backs and Widened the Racial Prosperity Gap
Between May and September 2020, Alabamaba Applesseed and partners surveyed 389 financially insecure Alabamaians. The authors documented how daily lives and financial circumstances changed for respondents since March 13, 2020, …
The High Price of Using Justice Fines and Fees to Fund Government
The Vera Institute of Justice released a series of research reports detailing the fines and fees levied by government agencies in Florida and New York, the impact of fines and …
Who Must Pay to Regain the Vote? A 50-State Survey (Update)
This report is an updated review of each U.S. state’s voting rights laws as they relate to payment of court fines, fees, and restitution.
First Steps Toward Equitable Fines and Fees Practices: Policy Guidance on Ability-to-Pay Assessments, Payment Plans, and Community Service
Jurisdictions across the country continue to impose disproportionate fines and fees. Until reform can be made, assessing a person’s ability to pay is critical to achieving fairness and equity in …
Considering the Process of Debt Collection in Community Corrections: The Case of the Monetary Compliance Unit
Before the creation of the monetary collection unit (MCU) in 2012, individuals with outstanding legal financial obligations (LFOs) from criminal cases faced a prolonged cycle of probation or parole supervision. …
The Price of Justice: Fines, Fees and the Criminalization of Poverty in the United States
Mass incarceration and the rising cost of the justice system correlate with the high number and value of fines and fees imposed throughout the justice system. As federal funding for …
Monetary Sanctions, Legal and Collateral Consequences, and Probation & Parole
Increasingly, jurisdictions have elevated their dependence on the offender-funded justice model, in which legal financial obligations (LFOs) have become prevalent. Regardless of their intended function, in the criminal justice system, …